Gideon wields his axe [The UK's Comprehensive Review Thread]

The Don said:
I know little about the nitty gritty of what social workers do on a day to day basis but I've heard social workers being interviewed who complain about the amount of paperwork they have to do and to lament how comparatively little time they get to spend with their charges as opposed to doing administration.
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As a social worker, I can tell you these views do appear to be grossly overstated.
 
Roadtoad said:
I listened to Osborne's speech while making a hard run up I-5. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is that Britain, unlike the US, is willing to make hard choices. As Osborne pointed out, you're better off confronting this early, rather than later when the choices will be far more draconian.
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"Britain" isn't making hard choices.

Osborne and friends are putting on an ideologically motivated circus - blaming the poor for the crimes of the rich.

Sadly, I don't think the US will attempt this until there's no choice, when Social Security, which never should have been a part of the General Fund, is down to its last dime. You might not like the choices, but at least someone is working to try to fix this mess.
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In what way is Osborne trying "to fix this mess"? He is doing his best to perpetuate the economic system that creates the cyclical unemployment, the effects of which the Welfare State was set up to mitigate.
 
Roadtoad said:
The one thing that sticks out in my mind is that Britain, unlike the US, is willing to make hard choices.
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Actually it is not the norm that British governments behave radically, although it seems to be more likely when the colour of the government changes after a long stretch of time (EG Thatcher and Blair).

The striking thing is that the May election result looked woefully inadequate to produce a government that would manage to do anything much--the conservatives didn't even win it, whereas Thatcher (second term) and Blair (first and second) won landslides.

I don't think the US will attempt this until there's no choice
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Maybe a more relevant comparison with the US is that the UK political system has far less separation of powers, so that once you have a viable majority in the lower house, you can do a lot of stuff without any other legislative or executive body being there to stop it. Some people think that the US system of checks and balances is quite unuseful in addressing long term structural issues as a consequence.

As Osborne pointed out, you're better off confronting this early, rather than later when the choices will be far more draconian.
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Not really. If it was "confronted" a year or two ago then the recession (which was the longest one in the developed world, and one of the deepest ex Latvia, Iceland, Greece, Ireland . . ) would probably have been even worse. Although it's a cliche, everyone was a Keynesian then. But even now there are differences of opinion about how early is correct. (And there are many folks who think that the deficit should be closed to a much greater extent with higher tax, keeping the size of the welfare state closer to its recent peak)

The UK is going to be the most draconian voluntary tightener of fiscal policy anywhere, I think. Countries facing a worse squeeze are those I mentioned above, and a few others, and in those cases it is being forced by various forms of sovereign debt crisis, which has not happened in the UK at all. Although there is a partial collective memory of when it did happen in 1976 (I wasn't here then).
 
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We may have to re-think the aircraft carrier debacle now that we've dented one of our subs. How we gonna defend the oil rich falklands now?
 
uk_dave said:
We may have to re-think the aircraft carrier debacle now that we've dented one of our subs. How we gonna defend the oil rich falklands now?
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Oil rich or not that's actually not a bad question, although it probably doesn't belong in this thread. The Argentines have been doing quite a lot of sabre rattling recently, and their government is floundering and they might fancy a bit of populist reclamation work. And might possibly regard a depleted Royal Navy and particularly the air cover problems as being a good opportunity. I understand that last time round they were under the impression that the UK wouldn't be able to mount a defence, so thought it was a good time to have a go.

Edit: Mind you having said all that, going from sabre rattling to actually drawing the sabre is a big step that I doubt they'll take.
 
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We keep a fairly sizeable garrison there now.

In fact, l'il sis is over on a 6 month tour.
 
Argentina stands to make a pot of cash out of South Atlantic deep water oil. Last thing they want to do is alienate the people with the tech. to find and produce it.

Just had a shot of the Guardian's Budget Page. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2010/oct/19/comprehensive-spending-review-cuts
I cut 204 billion in 2 minutes, but had to reinvest 20 of that in prisons, police and army to take care of the rioters. Shipping all benefit claimants to Afghanistan seems like a wizard wheeze though, as it gets most of the drug dealers closer to their suppliers and customers, thus saving on fuel and reducing global warming.
The GF keeps hitting me. I can't think why.
 
richardm said:
Oil rich or not that's actually not a bad question, although it probably doesn't belong in this thread. The Argentines have been doing quite a lot of sabre rattling recently, and their government is floundering and they might fancy a bit of populist reclamation work. And might possibly regard a depleted Royal Navy and particularly the air cover problems as being a good opportunity. I understand that last time round they were under the impression that the UK wouldn't be able to mount a defence, so thought it was a good time to have a go.

Edit: Mind you having said all that, going from sabre rattling to actually drawing the sabre is a big step that I doubt they'll take.
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The Argentine military has contracted even further than the those of the UK. In 1982 the UK garrison was all of 32 Royal Marines, now it's several hundred regular infantry, a company strength armed militia (the FIDF), with state of the art short-range air defense systems and Typhoon fighters, and an unknown number of SSNs. Even with the cutbacks it's still the largest deployment of UK troops outside of Afghanistan and Germany.
 
Looks like the proposed Housing Benefit changes are starting to have an effect. Well, they're planning for them, at least.

And there's the knock-on effects, too. Schools in the areas they are moved too will suddenly have an increase in numbers. And the people who are moved will presumably end up unemployed - they won't be able to commute into London to low-paid jobs.
 
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Aitch said:
Looks like the proposed Housing Benefit changes are starting to have an effect. Well, they're planning for them, at least.

And there's the knock-on effects, too. Schools in the areas they are moved too will suddenly have an increase in numbers. And the people who are moved will presumably end up unemployed - they won't be able to commute into London to low-paid jobs.
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Yep. Even assuming (big assumption) that these new measures are born of logic and justice it's a huge step to implement them within the existing structure. Unintended consequences and all that.
 
It'll work out in the end, the private sector will really kick in soon and we'll be up to our ears in jobs, good jobs and not just minimum wage ones.

"The Big Society" will take care of the social side of things with out of work steel workers and laid off dinner ladies volunteering to look after dementia patients and clearing the needles and lager cans from the local park.

The skies will be filled with the sound of birds and happy laughing children will once again be seen kicking a ball down the blossom scented streets of Moss Side.

We''ll laugh as we recall the warnings from Nobel laureate economists over the cuts and the effect on the economy.

We will look back and wonder why draconian cuts in Ireland didn't work when ours did and a new age of prosperity will be ushered in, an age we'll come to call "The Golden Cameron Years"

In our old age as we struggle, Zimmer frame in hand, down to our final shift at Starbucks we'll think to ourselves how lucky we are to have been kept active and useful, serving hot crap coffee to youngsters.
 
Francesca R said:
Krugman is always and everywhere a stimulus phenomenon these days. UK inflation is 3.1% so I am not sure even John Maynard would be spending public money now. Of course he also would not have run deficits when Gordon Brown did either.
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Well I guess you are going to get to find out.
Good luck! I hope it works out, although I doubt it will.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Argentina stands to make a pot of cash out of South Atlantic deep water oil. Last thing they want to do is alienate the people with the tech. to find and produce it.
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<sells Corned Beef shares, buys Petrobras Energia>

I see that some of the Lib Dems are beginning to rattle their own sabres, with Simon Hughes (the Lib Dem deputy leader, no less) making noise about not passing the benefit changes.

Simon Hughes said:
Harsh... draconian... not right. My message to the government is I don't think you will get Parliamentary approval for your current plans
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I wonder if he is more likely to draw his sabre than the Argentinians?

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the vaunted "Pupil Premium" is actually not going to be money reclaimed by efficiency savings from other departments, but money siphoned off from other schools, much to the dismay of the guy who helped formulate the plan:

Prof Grayson said:
that is not at all what we were aiming for :mad:
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richardm said:
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the vaunted "Pupil Premium" is actually not going to be money reclaimed by efficiency savings from other departments, but money siphoned off from other schools, much to the dismay of the guy who helped formulate the plan:
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According to Andy Burnham this was a sticking point with LibDems forming a coalition with Labour:-

The political significance of Clegg's failure to fund the pupil premium is huge. It goes to the heart of the politics of the coalition, and raises real questions about Clegg's influence within it. The issue is politically charged because it was one of the points on which the Lib-Lab post-election talks foundered.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/21/ruthless-tories-chewed-up-nick-clegg
 
richardm said:
...snip...

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the vaunted "Pupil Premium" is actually not going to be money reclaimed by efficiency savings from other departments, but money siphoned off from other schools, much to the dismay of the guy who helped formulate the plan:
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It's another one like the 2 billion for "social care", of which 1 billion comes out of the NHS budget.
 
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